Economic Calendar

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Nokia to Cut 3,500 More Jobs, Close Factory

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By Diana ben-Aaron - Sep 29, 2011 2:30 PM GMT+0700
Enlarge image Nokia Oyj Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop

Nokia Oyj Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop said, “With these planned changes, we will emerge as a more dynamic, nimble and efficient challenger.” Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg


Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones by volume, said it will cut 3,500 jobs as it closes a factory in Romania and reorganizes its maps business.

The company is also reviewing plants in Finland, Hungary and Mexico and expects more job eliminations next year, it said in a statement today. The reductions come on top of 4,000 job cuts announced in April.

Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop is slimming the Espoo, Finland-based company to catch up with faster-moving competitors. He’s also shifted 3,000 employees to Accenture Plc (ACN) along with the Symbian operating software to make way for the adoption of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone 7 and other platforms. The company has established a new location and commerce business that will result in the closure of units in Bonn and Malvern, Pennsylvania.

“With these planned changes, we will emerge as a more dynamic, nimble and efficient challenger,” Elop said in the statement. The company is committed to keeping research and development facilities in Europe, he said.

In a separate statement, Nokia said its joint venture with Siemens AG, Nokia Siemens Networks, will get a capital infusion of 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) from the parent companies to further strengthen its financial position.

Nokia fell as much as 2.3 percent in Helsinki and was down 1.1 percent to 4.14 euros as of 10:25 a.m. local time. Siemens lost 0.5 percent to 68.53 euros in Frankfurt trading.

To contact the reporter on this story: Diana ben-Aaron in Helsinki at dbenaaron1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net



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